India Wins Champions Trophy

Team India celebrating the Champions Trophy win in Birmingham June 23.

India won the Champions Trophy in a match affected by the British summer and a serious amount of choking by England’s batsmen, who threw away their wickets as if they were garbage.

The cold summer rain (a far more common weather pattern in England than warm summer sun) threatened to wash out the final in Birmingham, but it cleared enough to allow a 20-over match late in the day.

Both teams labored with their batting, but England – with Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan at the crease – appeared on course for a rare tournament win, needing just 20 runs from 15 deliveries as the match drew to a close.

Advertisement

England had struggled early in pursuit of India’s 129 total, particularly against the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and even Suresh Raina. After sliding to 46 for four, the chase regained some strength with England’s two T20 batting experts Bopara and Morgan at the crease.

Then, England choked.

Morgan is a brilliant player but too often he fails to take responsibility and finish off a match. His partnership with Bopara had crossed 50 runs and the pair had weathered the storm of Indian spin-bowling. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni tossed the ball to Ishant Sharma. Eyebrows were raised, why turn to India’s least effective bowler now?

At that point, Sharma had failed to take any wickets and been hit for the most runs. Dhoni took the gamble. It looked like the wrong one after Sharma’s second delivery was hit for six and then his next two went for wides. Dhoni applauded the first wide; he knew something that we didn’t. Sure enough, Morgan was sucked into lamely pulling a shot to Ashwin at midwicket.

The next delivery, Bopara hit Sharma to Ashwin, this time at square leg, for the second wicket in as many balls. England now needed 20 runs from 14 deliveries, with four wickets in hand.

The next two English batsmen were, in short, a disaster.

Bresnan, essentially England’s last hope, gave his wicket away. After surviving an LBW appeal, he wandered down the wicket as if he was in the middle of a bird-watching trip rather than a cricket final. Rohit Sharma picked up the ball and smashed the stumps. For India, victory was in sight, unlike Bresnan’s brain.

Then Jos Buttler, playing in perhaps the biggest game of his career, swung wildly at his first delivery and was clean bowled for a golden duck. It was an idiotic shot. His wicket-keeping had been scruffy too.

England had lost four wickets in eight deliveries. Stuart Broad and James Tredwell took the match into the final over, with 15 runs required for the win. That was highly unlikely with Ashwin bowling, and so it proved. England fell six runs short of the winning target.

India deserved the win. Dhoni’s gamble with Sharma looked wild, but it paid off. India never gave up, even when England looked a certain bet for the win. Although the match was shortened, the last Champions Trophy final in history was a thriller.

The damp Edgbaston crowd deserved this after sitting in the rain for six hours watching men in raincoats on the pitch chatting nervously and pointing at the dark sky. The International Cricket Council was praised for extending the time for playing the match, but there was a very real threat that continued rain would prevent any game being played and the trophy being shared between India and England. There was no contingency plan to have Monday as a reserve day, which is frankly ridiculous given how rain loves to gatecrash England’s June.

The delay didn’t help India. Even the swashbuckling Shikhar Dhawan – cricket’s musketeer and the player of the tournament – was struggling to middle the ball with his bat as England’s bowlers piled on the pressure.

But India persisted. After a mid-order collapse that featured cheap dismissals of Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina and Dhoni, the team could still rely on Jadeja at number seven to pile on runs at the end and lift the total to 129. England had Buttler at number seven. No contest.

Indian cricket was in turmoil at the start of June, roiled by allegations of spot-fixing and illegal betting the Indian Premier League. Players and officials were caught up in the scandal, which threatened to cast a shadow over India’s Champions Trophy campaign.

But the team responded in the best possible way, dominating the tournament and swatting aside the opposition. England proved the sternest test in the final, but India’s professionalism and bravery shone through.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.